


You Know

by spaceboye



Category: Animaniacs
Genre: Adopted Children, Bad Poetry, Character Study, Child Neglect, Dark Past, Family, Family Bonding, Family Fluff, Free Verse, Gen, Introspection, Poetry
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-24
Updated: 2018-02-24
Packaged: 2019-03-23 04:12:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 769
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13779429
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/spaceboye/pseuds/spaceboye
Summary: Wakko slips up; Yakko yaks. The Doctor makes it better.





	You Know

The water tower sloshes  
Back-and-forth  
Not with water, but with merriment  
Bouncing, cheering,  
Back-and-forth.

All the energy drains away  
Like a hole poked in the bottom  
When those words chime out,  
"Thanks, dad!"

Silence.

Dot scowls  
Annoyed and uncomfortable  
And nudges the middle child  
Who has the sense to look sheepish.

Yakko's lower jaw and eyebrows retreat from each other;  
The doctor looks absolutely poleaxed.

"Uh, I mean..."  
Wakko tries to temporize,  
But he is uncertain  
And wavers off.  
The silence tenses in response  
To his false start.

The oldest of the children  
Puts a hand each on this siblings' shoulders  
And steers them towards the door.  
"Why don't you two go, uh,  
Play with dynamite for a while?  
That sounds fun, right?"

(The pair feign excitement,  
But the soft sound of bickering  
Back-and-forth  
Can be heard  
As they exit the tower.)

Otto rubs his generous forehead,  
Feeling rather like he'd been  
 **Hit**  
By a truck.

"This... is one of your zany jokes, ja?"

Yakko doesn't answer,  
Instead leaning against the wall.

The air is knotted  
Around the strain  
Of the awkward pause that follows.

"We're not really kids, y'know?"

Doctor Scratchansniff gives his oldest ward  
A dubious look.

"I mean, we are, but..."  
Yakko scratches at his head  
Looking for a rare moment  
Like he doesn't know what to say.

"We've been kids for almost seventy years, Doc.  
And sixty of 'em were spent right here."

Peering behind thick glass,  
Otto takes in the water tower's interior.  
It's very lived-in.

(It occurs to him  
Faintly  
That the 'kidses' are older than he is,  
Yet they will remain 'kidses' long after he is gone.)

Yakko breaks the reverie;  
"It's different for toons,  
Y'know?  
I mean,  
Before we escaped that first time--"

(Otto remembers that day  
Distinctly.  
How could he ever forget  
The day he pulled all his hair out  
In frustration?  
And now look at him,  
Standing idly  
Conversing with the cause of his  
Vexation.)

"-- All we had was each other.  
It wasn't bad,  
But..."

His eyes tell a different story.  
He loves his sibs dearly,  
But all three of them  
Were very lonely  
Until that fateful day.

"Well, we've been around a long time,  
But we're still kids.  
We'll always be kids."

As the good doctor had suspected.  
The thought causes a  
Chill  
To creep up his back.

"It's kind of funny, y'know?"

(No it isn't.)

"But, ah..."  
Yakko turns inward now,  
Shoulders hunching nervously  
Despite his still-confident grin.

"They look up to you,  
Y'know?  
Even if we don't show it much.  
Dot's ten,  
And Wakko's eleven.  
They kind of need someone to look up to."

The eldest child laughs, then,  
For the first time since the  
One-sided  
Conversation  
Began.

(It almost sounds  
Normal--  
But something about it is hollow.)

"I mean, they have me,  
But you know how sibs are, right?"

(He doesn't, actually.  
Otto never had siblings,  
But he doesn't say that.)

"They don't really listen to me.  
I mean, they follow my lead a lot,  
But it's not like they think I'm in charge  
Or anything."

The words tumble from Otto's lips  
Before he has a chance to rethink them:  
"They don't listen to me, either!"

A pause,  
Then Yakko laughs in earnest,  
Shattering the unusually somber conversation  
Like so much crystal-glass.

Otto smiles slightly,  
Though he doesn't really understand  
What's so funny.

"Yeah, of course they don't,  
But it's a different kind of not listening.  
See, they don't listen to me  
Because I'm a kid, too."

(The doctor wonders how old Yakko is  
Twelve? Fifteen?  
Seventy?)

"When they don't listen to you,  
Scratchy,  
It's because they know you're right."

Yakko settles back against the wall,  
Looking much more at ease.

Otto is dumbstruck once again.

"We're not used to, y'know,   
Having someone to watch over us.  
It's kinda hard to adjust to."

All at once,  
It strikes the doctor  
Just how  
Precarious  
And precious  
His relationship is  
With these three zany kids.

He can't help but think of  
The 'Wild Children'  
Who appear in the news  
Once in a blue moon;  
Babies left on the doorstep  
Of a wolf den  
Or a tall tree,  
Raised by animals  
And then forced to adjust to the human world  
When they're found.

_(But even those children  
Were raised by someone.)_

Otto laughs then,  
Just a little,   
Startling his ward.  
The doctor ruffles the inky fur  
On top of Yakko's head.

"Come on.  
Let's go find Wakko and Dot  
Before they tear down ze whole lot."

Yakko is baffled for an instant more  
Before he smirks,  
As usual,  
And scoffs good-naturedly.

"Oh, Scratchy,  
You know us too well!"


End file.
